Oil on canvas
56,5 x 68,7 cm (22,2 x 27 in)
After he finished his education to be an artist in the circle around Anton van Dycks and after spending time in Amsterdam and Vienna, Johann Friedrich Gruber was appointed court painter and the prince's teacher in Stuttgart. There he decorated the grotto in the gardens of the Stuttgart castle. In 1675 the Wurttemberg court commissioned him and Georg Nikolaus List and Andreas Thill to do twelve painted landscapes in the duchess' antechamber.
His mostly lavishly decorated, precisely and delicately executed fruit and flower still lives are influenced by Dutch painting. Well-known works are in possession of the Amsterdamer Rijksmuseum (formerly ascribed to Cornelis de Heem) as well as in the Ludwigsburg Schlossmuseum. [CB].

We are grateful to Mr. Fred Meijer, Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague, for his expert advice.